'Once Upon a Time,' or perhaps, 'Close Your Eyes and Imagine'
Aid for Ukraine will pass this week (months too late), but our southern border remains 'open' thanks to Republican treachery.
Lady Lindsey (Graham, for those not in the know) was on Fox Sunday praising Donald Trump for passing the Ukrainian aid bill in the House. With a straight face, he told the world that if not for the orange menace, assistance would not again be flowing to Ukraine. Graham was clearly having a good panty-line day, so we can forgive him a bit for his latest burst of lunacy.
Graham, regardless of his self-hating political positions against gay marriage, is smart enough to know that Trump had next to nothing to do with the passing of the aid package. This does not mean, however, that a majority of Republicans will be lulled into their standard Fox-induced stupor to accept this outlandish perversion of the facts. Many Republicans, however, will eventually move past the opposition by many MAGidiots for helping Ukraine and will regard Trump’s “leadership” as being the catalytical converter for getting arms to the front lines in Ukraine.
During an interview appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham stated his approval for the House of Representatives approving more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine to bolster its fight against Russia’s invasion that began in February 2022. The bill designates approximately $10 billion of the Ukraine funding as repayable loans.
“There’s a loan component to it. This would not have passed without President Trump. I want to thank the House Speaker [Mike Johnson] and [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries working together in a bipartisan fashion to give weapons to Ukraine to fight a fight that matters to us,” Graham said. “And President Trump has created a loan component to this package that gives us leverage down the road (Lindsey Graham Crediting Trump).”
The truth of all this is, though, that thanks to Trump, the discussions in Congress about providing aid for Ukraine were slowed and almost destroyed by the harmful gases he creates each time he opens his mouth. The catalytic converter that actually pollutes the air and guts efficiency. Two months ago, one of the most conservative and potentially effective bipartisan agreements was cobbled together to address border security. It was a late Christmas gift for Republicans in Congress, and President Biden would sign it into law.
After months of negotiations, United States senators have finally produced a 370-page bill, which would give the government emergency powers to refuse entry to migrants crossing the border or to quickly expel those who had already entered the US. Those powers would not restrict the entry of US citizens or others with a legal basis to come to the country.
The new bill has introduced the concept of a trigger, which will be tripped when the number of migrants encountering border officials crosses an average of 5,000 over the course of a week. The bill also gives the president the power to shut the southern border with Mexico if more than 4,000 migrants attempt to cross the border in a week.
The bill would require the government to process at least 1,400 migrants per day at border crossings, and would maintain some protections for people who fear torture or persecution after being deported. And it caps the number of days the emergency powers can be used each year (US Senate Border Security Bill).
Then, Trump woke up and, realizing how bad this would be for him, feigned a cough and said, “Kill it,” and they did. His army of dummies marched in silly unison and, one by one turned their backs on the border security agreement of their dreams in order to help Trump and Putin defeat Ukraine.
Imagine how different the situation would be right now had Ukraine been armed three months ago. By now, we would be seeing the effects of the border security bill on the polls. A more significant proportion of independents would be firmly on Biden’s side. The fear that Trump could be elected for a second time to the presidency would not be as sleep-distorting, and we would be able to focus on solving some of the many problems from which our nation suffers.
The failure of many Americans to understand how the stability of the Biden presidency shapes the average day is also a failure by the Biden people to communicate this fact. So much effort goes into reminding people of the chaos of Trump, and this is good, but the chaos has to be compared and contrasted with something. Simply saying, “Under Trump, it was crazy,” is good, but eventually, it loses its power to scare because, at the same time, every Republican appearing on TV or posting on social media repeats one mantra that seems to be sticking for the intellectually lazy: “Biden’s presidency is the worst in our history. Biden is a failed president.”
Joe Biden is one of the most successful presidents in modern history. His leadership in the world united our allies and created a front against tyrants. Joe Biden has done more to combat climate change than any other president, and he spends his days not occupied with self-serving social media posts but imagining ways he can make life for Americans and our allies better and safer.
If Lady Lindsey had a truthful frilly garter belt in the closet, he would have said the opposite: “Despite Trump’s attempts at sabotage, we were able to overcome them and get aid to the Ukrainians.”
Lindsey, however, is what ails America’s Fascist Party and why our democracy will not survive a second Trump presidency: They shamelessly lie with no regard for how that weakens our nation or how it pushes us toward civil war.